Gill hadn’t been listening. “You saidshewasn’t coming.”
Silence.
Of course there was. His little sister had been caught.
What was the word the Americans used?
Busted.
“Sophia Elizabeth Marie Louise von Strausser.” He used his sister’s full name. “Why did you tell me Kat wasn’t attending your wedding?”
“Because you can be such a pain.” Sophie sounded like she was twelve, not twenty-eight. “I didn’t want to deal with it.”
“Whatit?”
“You.” A beat passed. “You treat all American women with disdain because of Clarissa.”
Hearing the name of his ex-girlfriend, the woman he thought he would marry, put a foul taste in his mouth. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do,” Sophie countered. “Even before Clarissa, you were rude to Kat. You’ve always disliked her, even when we were kids, so I figured if you knew she was coming, you’d find a way to have her banned from entering the country.”
“You’re being melodramatic.” A good idea though.
“I’m being honest,” Sophie said sincerely.
The last thing he wanted to do was hurt his sister’s feelings. “I’m only looking out for you. That’s all I’ve ever done because I don’t want Kat filling your head with inappropriate ideas.”
“Such as?”
“Whoever heard of a princess becoming a social worker?”
“You wanted to be a professor. The two fields aren’t that dissimilar.”
“That’s different.”
“Why? Because you’re a man?”
Whatever Gill said would be taken the wrong way, so he kept quiet.
“Bertrand says my job attracted him to me,” she added.
“He’s going to let you continue working after you marry?”
“Of course. I would never marry a man who would force me to stop doing what I love. I have a new position lined up in Darbyton, though I’ll miss my job here.”
Gill would have to speak with Bertrand. Maybe he could limit Sophie’s interactions with Kat. If not before the wedding, then afterward as her husband.
“I’m good at what I do.” Confidence filled Sophie’s voice. “I’m making a difference in people’s lives and you, as our future ruler, should pay closer attention to what our subjects need.”
“I know what my people need.” He imagined Sophie sticking her tongue out at the phone. A childhood gesture she hadn’t outgrown.
“They don’t need any more trade agreements,” she countered.
“Those will secure everyone’s future, including yours.”
“I’m securing my own.”
“By working?”
